RE: Re: Big Changes to the WSOP
Why It Would Be a Great to Make the Final Table of the Main Event and Have to Wait Three Months to Finish

by , Apr 7, 2008 | 10:48 am

So I’m kinda surprised to see so many people so bothered by proposed changes to the WSOP main event. I know folks like TBR are a little concerned that a new schedule would require him to take more time away from making babies/the law donuts, but I gotta say … bitch all you want, as imperfect as it may be in v 1.0, this delayed final table concept is great — nay, brilliant! — and here’s why:

Better Sponsor Deals for Players

In three months a player has time to get their business affairs in order and sell their bodies if they wish. Currently, the only deals offered up are by online-poker-site thugs hovering around the final few tables with bags of cash and swag. And while some more experienced players might recognize the off-table opportunities that go along with guaranteed television exposure while it is all taking shape, do you really want to be making business decisions while in the middle of a big tourney?

Say someone like TBR were to make the final table … he has ins with Whataburger, but there’s simply no way he’d be able to hook anything up with a non-poker company in two days. With the extra time, however, he might be able to convince them (in theory at least) that doughy poker players are the perfect people to market the 24-hr drive-thru to. Boom: Whataburger hat, extra cash. If Lacey Jones were to make it, her peeps would have plenty of time to work something up with Revlon, for example. These sorts of deals simply aren’t possible in the current set-up.


Better Sponsor Deals for the WSOP

Likewise, the delay would afford Harrah’s (and ESPN) extra time to custom-tailor a sales pitch around the extra-hyped event that will be going down. Even if Lacey Jones wanted nothing to do with anything chick-ish, that wouldn’t stop Harrah’s from going to companies who previously might not have given poker a second thought and saying, hey, we got this sweet Texas hottie looking to become the Hillary Clinton of poker … you may wanna get in on this. OK, bad comparison, but I think you get the picture. Bottom line is the bottom line — and the better Harrah’s can do at securing these sorts of deals, the closer we are to having true overlays in big-time poker events. And even without that, in general, non-poker money coming into the poker world is a good thing for us all.


Free Editorial Promotion

Let’s stick with Lacey Jones as a final tableist … she just won a million bucks and will be competing against some tough dudes for $7-$12 million (my numbers, not the WSOP’s). Boom: She’s on The View in a heartbeat … and Harrah’s is getting great brand promotion at a time that will inevitable coincide with a Circuit event somewhere. Ladies in Nebraska flock to Council Bluffs to buy into a $200 event trying to be the next Lacey Jones. This applies to non-blonde-female players as well. A fisherman from Louisiana gets on The Fishing Channel … a young internet kid from Colorado gets in Snowboarder magazine …

Election-Year Bump

Let’s face it, poker is escapism. The poker boom coincided with the early days of the Iraq war, and after getting our fix of shock and awe, people flipping channels found themselves captivated by this intriguing show called the World Poker Tour, and then this guy named Chris Moneymaker on ESPN … wow, so much confusion in the world right now and here people are playing this easy-to-learn game where everyday folks are kinda-sorta in charge of their own fates. Politics, violence, recession, and illicit gay rendezvouses will be super-big in October, and poker stands to benefit from TV viewers wanting to get away from it all.

Better Stadium Seating/Parties

As things are now, after nearly seven weeks of intense WSOPage, the Amazon Room is transformed into a TV stadium literally overnight, and anyone who has trudged through the experience of seeing the final table live can tell you: it was the best time they’ll never want to have again. But this way, Harrah’s is no longer limited to the Amazon, and in general has more room to create a better live experience — probably something akin to boxing, as the action space is about the same. The parties around this live event will be better, too, as players not at the final table will have had some time to recover from the WSOP burn and can be more excited about the end results of the WSOP than getting home.

Professional Wrestling-like Entrances
OK, this could actually be a bad thing and there are lots of intangibles in play. But if I learned anything from seeing the NBC Heads-Up Championship, it was the clear difference between a poker tournament that happens to have TV cameras there and a television production that happens to be about poker. This pause would even more clearly distinguish the two … so the WSOP as a whole could be the festival of poker tournaments it is, and the main event final table can be the made-for-TV special it has the potential to be.

Absolutely, if this sked change goes through it will forever change the WSOP … but so what? A bunch of players in the main event got there by finishing in the top XX of a super-satellite tourney that finished before it finished. So now, basically the $10k NLH Championship will be a Super-mega satellite that plays down to nine, who all get $1 million and an invitation to come back for a special televised single-table sit-n-go to compete for upwards of $10 million … and the caveat is you get to start with the same number of chips you finished the SMS-STSNG qualifier with. Fun!

Anyone who doesn’t want to compete in that sorta event, of course, doesn’t have to — and I suspect (but don’t know for sure) that Harrah’s would give refunds to anyone who has already bought in and no longer wants to play.

I also will bet that if there is a three-month delay in 2008, the 2009 WSOP will be the biggest ever.


10 Comments to “RE: Re: Big Changes to the WSOP
Why It Would Be a Great to Make the Final Table of the Main Event and Have to Wait Three Months to Finish


  1. Short-Stacked Shamus
    says:

    Yes, as all half-dozen arguments here show, there’s no doubt the new arrangement will prove mightily lucrative for ESPN, the final nine players, and perhaps Whataburger (yum).

    As for the rest of us?

    I suppose I could be convinced, but I still can’t quite figure why the idea to delay the finale three months should excite current poker/WSOP fans . . . .


  2. California Jen
    says:

    I’m with you, Shamus. I could be convinced…

    It’s not like I’m going to walk around the WSOP with a picket sign; I’m not super opposed to the idea. However, I have lots of concerns about the integrity of the game, the momentum of the players and other interested parties that might be squashed, and the players – there will probably be at least one or two – who get left out of the talk show/sponsorship/professional poker training mix for one reason or another.

    I simply think there are other ways to do this, even with the delay of a week or two. I still feel that 90 days (it’s closer to 120 days, frankly) is just a loony idea.

    And I’ll say this will Oliver-type dramatic overtones: They better announce it quick. The start of the WSOP is less than 2 months away. To set the final table for some random date in November, let’s say, the powers-that-be better announce it ASAP, not only for the players’ sakes, but for the media and everyone else involved as well. But as of today, Harrah’s official statement is one of denial. They say rumors are rumors, and the dates of the WSOP stand as originally released.


  3. DanM
    says:

    ***concerns about momentum***

    This is such a non-issue to me … I’m sure there were guys in the old days who didn’t like it when the main event took more than one day and players were allowed to go home and sleep.


  4. Poker on TV
    says:

    “I still can’t quite figure why the idea to delay the finale three months should excite current poker/WSOP fans . . . .”

    Because more money in the poker economy is good for all of us, whether players, media, TV producers, or whatever.

    Not that I don’t agree that 3 months is a bit much.


  5. DanM
    says:

    Exactly, even guys like Oliver should be able to make more bank this way … unless he fears getting shoved out by the bigger boys over time.

    The Super Bowl takes off two weeks … It’s already April 7 and we haven’t finished March Madness yet …

    This is would be more comparable, however, to the last episode each season of Survivor or The Apprentice.


  6. olivert
    says:

    *** Exactly, even guys like Oliver should be able to make more bank this way … unless he fears getting shoved out by the bigger boys over time. ***

    The ways things are going with viewership demographics and TV ratings for poker, the switch to a live televised heads-up match to conclude the WSOP ME may be the ONLY way players will attract logo sponsorships from product categories that target young viewers, i.e. caffenated beverages, beer, and even play-for-free online poker websites.


  7. Poker Shrink
    says:

    I repeat: Follow the Money!


  8. BJ Nemeth
    says:

    I’m confident that at least 75% of the people arguing against this format will really, really enjoy it within two years, to the point where they would *hate* to go back to the old (current) format.

    That percentage will probably be closer to 85-90%, but if I were putting money on it, I’d only commit to 75% of the naysayers coming around within two years.

    Personally, I doubt it will happen this year, but I’m excited to think that they’re seriously discussing it. I’d love to see it this year, but I don’t think it’ll happen until 2009.

    While my comments here and at 2+2 ramble and argue in an unfocused way, I might be writing something clear and focused on this topic with Pauly soon on Tao of Poker.


  9. BJ Nemeth
    says:

    For the record, when I say that most naysayers will come around in two years, I mean two years from the first time this actually happens, and not two years after rumors that it may happen. I think a lot of people won’t believe the advantages until they can see them for themselves.


  10. olivert
    says:

    > For the record, when I say that most naysayers will come around in two years, I mean two years from the first time this actually happens, and not two years after rumors that it may happen. I think a lot of people won’t believe the advantages until they can see them for themselves.

    The LIVE finale of “The Contender” Season 2 on ESPN in 2006, airing in a later time slot (10pm-midnight Eastern), drew more households and more viewers then the 2006 WSOP Main Event taped 2-hour show airing just before “The Contender” finale.

    The “Mark Burnett” way of building up a TV audience for the live final battle between two previous unknowns has worked, not only with “Survivor”, but also with “The Apprentice”, and to a lesser extent, “The Contender”.